Pontypool: Understanding Urban Character Cadw Welsh Government Plas Carew Unit 5/7 Cefn Coed Parc Nantgarw CF15 7QQ

Telephone: 01443 33 6000 Fax: 01443 33 6001

First published by Cadw in 2012 ISBN 978-1-85760-297-5 © Crown Copyright 2012

Cadw is the Welsh Government’s historic environment service, working for an accessible and well-protected historic environment for . : Understanding Urban Character

1 Acknowledgements

In carrying out this study, Cadw grant-aided Glamorgan- Archaeological Trust to undertake mapping and database work tracing urban development during the nineteenth century, and to identify relevant data in the National Monuments Record of Wales and the regional Historic Environment Record. The mapped data and database generated by this project is held as a digital record by Cadw and Glamorgan-Gwent Archaeological Trust.

Photography for this study was provided by the Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Wales, and information on some specific sites within the study area is held on Coflein, the online digital database of RCAHMW.

2 Contents

Introduction 5 Character Areas 36 Aims of the Study 5 1. Centre 36 2. Hanbury Road 42 Historical Background 6 3. Trosnant 43 Founded on Iron: The Industrial 4. 48 History of Pontypool 6 5. 49 The Growth of Urban Settlement 10 6. Osborne Road 51 Origins and Early Growth 10 7. Penygarn and East of the River 53 Late Nineteenth-century Expansion 13 8. Sow Hill 54 The Twentieth Century 14 9. 58 Landownership 16 Connections: Transport Networks 16 Statement of Significance 60

Historical Topography 21 Selected Sources 61 Cartographic Sources 61 The Character of Building 25 Published Sources 61 The Chronology of Building 25 Building Materials 26 Endnotes 63 Building Types 29 Commercial Building 29 Civic and Religious Buildings 31 Residential Development 32 Urban Residential Building 33

List of Maps pages 65–80

1. The Extent of Urban Development by 1844 6. All Character Areas (Tithe Map data on First Edition Ordnance 7. All Character Areas with Listed Buildings, Survey map base) Registered Park, and Conservation Area 2. The Extent of Urban Development by 1882 8. Town Centre (on First Edition Ordnance Survey map base) 9. Hanbury Road 3. Detail of Urban Development in Central 10. Trosnant Pontypool, Sow Hill and Trosnant by 1882 (on 11. Pontypool Park First Edition Ordnance Survey map base) 12. Pontymoile 4. The Extent of Urban Development by 13. Osborne Road 1901 (on Second Edition Ordnance Survey 14. Penygarn and East of the River map base) 15. Sow Hill 5. Detail of Urban Development in Central 16. Wainfelin Pontypool, Sow Hill and Trosnant by 1901 (on Second Edition Ordnance Survey map base)

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Introduction

Aims of the Study advice, and contribute to local interpretation and education strategies.

Historic character lies at the heart of local Urban characterization defines the unique historic distinctiveness and sense of place. No two character of individual , and identifies the places share a history, so every place has a variety of character within them. It looks at the unique historic character, which is a powerful history of a town and identifies its expression in asset in regeneration. Responding to local patterns of space and connection and in traditions character is an important objective of good of building, which are the fundamental ingredients design; sustaining it can bring social, economic of historic character. and environmental benefits. The purpose of this study is threefold: it is intended to Urban characterization is a tool that can help contribute to a Townscape Heritage Initiative for the us use historic character to create sustainable town centre; to inform emerging proposals for broader and distinctive places for the future. It aims to regeneration in Pontypool; and to offer support for describe and explain the historic character of policies in the Local Development Plan, which are towns, to give a focus to local distinctiveness intended to sustain local distinctiveness. The study area and help realise the full value of the historic has been defined to provide specific support for work Different epochs of commercial building environment. It seeks to inform and support in the town centre and its immediate environs, whilst in the town centre positive planning, regeneration, and conservation also setting out a context for physical regeneration (Crown Copyright: programmes, help improve the quality of planning activity and planning in the wider settlement area. RCAHMW).

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Historical Background

Founded on Iron: of Pontypool by several entrepreneurs. One of these was Richard Hanbury from Worcestershire The Industrial History who ran a furnace at Cwmffrwdoer from about 1579, and had assumed control over a furnace at of Pontypool in the Ebbw Valley later in the century. A furnace at Pontymoile (within what is now Pontypool Park) was established in about 1575–76 ‘The situation of Pont y Pool, near a region rich by John Truve, but was a Hanbury enterprise by in mineral treasures, in the midst of forges and the late seventeenth century. Another furnace collieries, and at the head of the canal, render near Trosnant (‘Old Furnace’ on modern maps) it peculiarly commodious for the establishment was leased to John Hanbury in 1698. 3 of iron manufactories; and perhaps another generation may see a new Birmingham start up in the wilds of .’ 1 The conversion of cast iron into wrought iron took place in forges, which were established ‘...the town now derives its consequence from the close to the furnaces. Pontymoile ironworks mineral treasures abounding in the surrounding included a forge as well as a furnace, which country. Immense quantities of iron ore and coal operated until about 1831 when it was shut being found in the neighbourhood, and there are also down as part of a programme of improvements no fewer than 13 iron furnaces, besides tin-works, at Pontypool Park. By about 1577, Town Forge forges etc, within about five miles of the town.’ 2 was probably also in existence, immediately below the bridge close to the present town Pontypool has a particular claim to fame in the centre. There is a detailed plan of the site made industrial history of Wales, as perhaps its first in 1834, but it closed down not long afterwards industrial town and the first centre for the and its site was a park or gardens by 1881. 4 production of tin-coated iron sheets in the country. Osborne Forge, just below the bridge at Development began in the late seventeenth , was probably at least as old as century, but the area was already established as an the other two; it made Osmond or Osborn industrial centre associated with the iron industry iron, which was prized for its exceptional quality. 5 by the sixteenth century. There are documentary Later, New Forge was established immediately references to a bloomery furnace at Pontymoile east of the town centre and to the north of in the early fifteenth century. the bridge. It became known as Town Forge following the closure of the original Town Forge Pontypool lies in the valley of the Afon Llwyd, below the bridge, and it remained in operation which was rich in natural resources for iron until the 1950s. production. Charcoal, coal and iron ore were available in abundance, and the river and its These enterprises depended on a reliable tributaries provided water power. Technological supply of raw materials derived from substantial developments in the sixteenth century, notably landholdings. It has been estimated that a large the introduction of the blast furnace, enabled charcoal-fired blast furnace needed about 7,000 these resources to be exploited for larger-scale acres (2,832.8 hectares) of woodland, and a production by enterprising individuals. They leased forge 6,000 acres (2,428.11 hectares). Richard land not only to construct furnaces, but also to Hanbury acquired large areas of woodland; by extract the raw materials for iron production and 1576 he also had rights to iron ore and coal over the fuel to feed the furnaces. 800 acres (323.74 hectares) around Pontymoile, and , as well as rights to One of the first blast furnaces in Wales was iron ore over an extensive acreage in the lordship established at Monkswood (between Pontypool of ( area). The Hanbury and ) in 1536. In the decades that followed, family also worked coal at Lower Race, a cluster of furnaces was established in the vicinity Cwmlickey and Blaendare from the seventeenth

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century. Coal became an increasingly important in the park by 1697. By about 1706, the part of the local economy as it supplanted production of tinplate had also commenced. 7 charcoal as the fuel for the iron industry. 6 By 1728 a new mill had been built at Pontyfelin (the site of the Panteg Steelworks) to The first specific reference, by name, to activity at supply a tin mill at Pontymoile; this was probably Pontypool comes in 1665, when Capel Hanbury the first place in Britain capable of manufacturing leased ‘a parcel of waste called Pontypoole, viable quantities of tinplate. The site of this tin mill together with the forge thereon’. This was was probably at Old Estate Yard. Other tinworks probably the ironworks that was sited within were soon established elsewhere in the town, what became the park, and it was either Capel or including substantial works at Lower Mill and Pontypool Park, his son, Major John Hanbury, who built Pontypool another south-west of the bridge at Pontymoile as depicted in about Park House. Major Hanbury had established the (established in 1806, and later known as the 1860 (The National first rolling mill for the production of black plate Pontymoile Tinworks). 8 Library of Wales).

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Above: Long-lost buildings traditionally thought to be associated with the japanning industry ( Museum Trust Collection).

Right: Traces of industrial activity still line the river banks (Crown Copyright: RCAHMW).

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The flat valley floor During the eighteenth century, other centres of and the town now entirely depends upon the was only developed iron production developed elsewhere (Merthyr, iron and coal works, and manufacturing tinplate, for housing relatively Bersham, and later Blaenavon), but Pontypool had boilerplate, and rail for railways. These branches recently, once industrial consolidated an important specialist role in the are carried on extensively within a radius of activity had ceased 9 11 (Crown Copyright: production of tinplate. By 1732, a particular eight miles from the town’. The heavier RCAHMW). method of treating the metal plate, resulting in a industries came to dominate the local economy lacquered finish that was highly prized, had been during the nineteenth century. They were developed. The process was called japanning, and supported by the large-scale exploitation of raw it was first developed by Thomas Allgood and materials (including coal) within the hinterland taken up by his son Edward, who commenced of the town. large-scale production in 1732. There is some doubt as to the exact location of the early japan Much of this industrial base collapsed during works. Tradition has it that the first site was a the twentieth century, and there are now only house in Trosnant at the back of The Star Inn, now scant remains directly associated with the long demolished. Another tradition suggests that industries that had underpinned the town. the Allgoods also had japanning premises at West Nonetheless, there remain many reminders Place, to the rear of Crane Street (there is a of industry in the topography of the area: the drawing of it dated 1871). Nichols writes of river and its tributary streams were managed large-scale demolition at the top of Crane Street as a source of power and, although many in about 1970, which exposed a row of possible watercourses have disappeared, the river kilns, but they were not recorded. 10 Another site banks are still lined with substantial remnants of associated with japanning was on Lower Crane industrial activity. The pattern of settlement itself Street, which was known as Japan Street in 1836. reflects historic land use. The valley floor was the valuable land for specialist production and Production of japanware had diminished by the distribution — it is only in modern times that early nineteenth century (the Allgoods’ factory other development has moved in to occupy closed in 1817) and, by 1858, was ‘totally extinct the space left behind as industry moved out.

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Above: The bridge in The Growth establishment of a market — a Saturday market Pontypool, drawn by and three annual fairs were granted by the G. Samuel and engraved Crown in 1690. The market building was provided by J. Walker in 1801 of Urban Settlement in 1730 by Frances Bray, whose family were lords (The National Library of Wales). of the manor of Wentsland and Bryngwyn, and ‘One of the most singular and irregularly built towns who had extensive landholdings west of the river. Opposite: The in the kingdom.’ 12 It was also in this period that the Hanbury family eighteenth-century established Pontypool Park as their permanent market hall is probably Origins and Early Growth residence. This, together with the development the oldest surviving building in the town of new works in the vicinity, probably provided centre (Crown Industrial activity encouraged the growth of further stimulus for urban development. Copyright: RCAHMW). settlement in the valley, in which scattered farmsteads were supplemented with clusters of Pontypool had become ‘a little compact town’ by dwellings. The hamlets of Pontymoile and Trosnant 1756. The author of this description attributed its were probably amongst the early focal points, development to the Hanbury family’s ironworks. but it was probably the decision of the Hanburys He also noted that ‘the houses and buildings to invest in the area of Pontypool itself that belonging to this manufacture are scattered encouraged the development of a fully-fledged and extend far above a mile along the river’, town here. All we know of this particular location implying perhaps that the town itself was before the late sixteenth century is that there was already something of a focal point in an otherwise 14 a river crossing here — there is a reference to a scattered settlement pattern. By this time, too, bridge called Pont Poell in a document of 1490. 13 the status of the town was well marked by the market and assembly rooms, which had been The early history of the town is elusive, but by established in 1731. Pontypool was by now the late seventeenth century aspiring urban status developing a role as a commercial and social was rewarded by a successful petition for the focal point for the wider area.

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© Crown copyright and Landmark Information Group. All rights reserved. Glamorgan-Gwent Archaeological Trust Ltd. On behalf of the Welsh Government 2012.

The settlement pattern of Map evidence confirms that there was a significant had a well-built house which ‘lies in a deer park Pontypool, Trosnant and nucleus of settlement at Pontypool by the late on the side of the river on which the ironworks Tranch by 1844 (Tithe eighteenth century. In Emmanuel and Thomas have been erected, though they are at some Map data on First Bowen’s map of Monmouthshire of about 1767, 15 distance from the house’. 16 Edition Ordnance Survey map base). Pontypool is portrayed as similar in size to and Usk. Some years later, when a map Despite little direct physical evidence, we must was prepared to show the line of the proposed imagine that the town continued to thrive and canal from Newport to Pontnewynydd, the layout grow during the eighteenth century for, by 1801, of the town was clear: it stretched along the road ‘Pont y Pool is a large straggling place, containing 250 running up the valley, at a junction of north–south houses, and 1,500 souls. Several neat habitations, and and east–west routes. numerous shops, present an appearance of thriving prosperity, notwithstanding the dusky aspect of the A Swedish visitor to Wales in the mid-eighteenth town, occasioned by the adjacent forges. The century was not impressed, however. According inhabitants derive great support from the ironworks to R. R. Angerstein, ‘Pontypool is a town of little and collieries, and have been recently benefited by importance, and only worth mentioning because the trade of the canal. The place is the principal mart of its ironworks and its mills for rolling and for the natives of the mountainous district, and the sheets and wire drawing’. He noted that all was in weekly market is not the least considerable, and the the hands of a single owner, Mr R. Hanbury, who cheapest in Monmouthshire.’ 17

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There was extensive commercial development in the town centre in the late nineteenth century, such as this example on Osborne Road (Crown Copyright: RCAHMW).

In terms of physical extent, Pontypool was Pontypool grew rapidly probably only a little bigger than Trosnant in in the late nineteenth the early nineteenth century, but it was during century as new suburbs were created (Crown this period that its status as a major town was Copyright: RCAHMW). assured. There are several buildings in the town centre which date from this period and, though the town did not expand significantly in area, it grew in density. A map of 1836 18 shows tight linear settlement largely centred on the junction of the main road (Commercial Street and George Street) with Crane Street and the road to the bridge, and continuing for some distance to the Nicholas Street was established in 1854, and north-west (towards Pontnewynydd). Although some of the housing here is quite distinct from clearly a distinct area, Trosnant was also quite the styles that dominated suburban development densely developed and strongly linear along the of the late nineteenth century. road from Pontymoile, with limited development between that line and the canal along Clarence Street and behind it, where there was a corn mill. Late Nineteenth-century Expansion

What this 1836 map records is the concentration Although probably enjoying steady growth of development at the two locations which now throughout the nineteenth century, Pontypool define the modern town — the town centre and experienced a flurry of activity between about Trosnant, which contrasts with the more irregular 1880–1900, and many town-centre buildings pattern to the south-west. This contrast is shown were built or rebuilt in that period. Most of the with even greater clarity on the Tithe town’s suburbs were also developed at this time. Map: although there was extensive settlement The rapidity of growth over a limited period of scattered over the hillside at Sow Hill and Tranch time has lent remarkable uniformity to these (the latter probably a squatter settlement in areas. In the process of this development, much origin), the town itself is notably compact. More of the informality of earlier settlement patterns formal development in the area immediately to to the west of the town was obscured, except the west of the town centre probably began in at Tranch, where modern development still the mid-nineteenth century: the chapel on contrives to be haphazard.

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Right: The late nineteenth-century entrance to the market — an important civic project, which played a major role in the commercial and economic life of the town (Crown Copyright: RCAHMW).

Far right: Crane Street Baptist Church (Crown Copyright: RCAHMW).

Right: Fine detail on the roof of the market hall (Crown Copyright: RCAHMW).

Far right: The church of St John the Divine, Wainfelin (Crown Copyright: RCAHMW).

Pontypool acquired the formal trappings of urban and early twentieth century brought Merchants Hill status piecemeal. The first and critical ingredient Baptist Church (1888), and St John the Divine’s was the establishment of a market in the late Church at Wainfelin (1912–13). seventeenth century. The 1730 market building sufficed until 1846, when a new building was The Twentieth Century provided. That there was justification to replace and enlarge the market in 1893–94 (and again in 1897) is a sure indication of the prosperity of the The built-up area of Pontypool increased very town in this period, and of its rapid expansion. considerably during the twentieth century. The town had acquired a town hall in 1856, There was some speculative building in the thanks to the patronage of Capel Hanbury Leigh, interwar period, most notably along the road but was administered by magistrates until a local from Pontymoile to , and from Pontypool government board was set up in 1871. This board to Penygarn, but the greatest contribution to was in turn superseded by the establishment of urban growth came in the form of major an Urban District Council in 1895, but the market public-housing schemes in the suburbs. There building remained as a major legacy of its regime. were also some significant new building projects in the town centre, with some good civic and Churches and chapels are other indicators of commercial buildings of the 1920s and 1930s, population, prosperity and aspiration. Pontypool and the police station of the 1950s. Clearance retains some significant examples, though there and redevelopment programmes in the last have been many losses during the twentieth two decades of the century have also had century. Notable survivals include St James’s considerable influence on the character of the Church, established in 1821; Upper Trosnant Baptist town, introducing blocks of building on a larger Church, built in 1826; Crane Street Baptist Church scale than hitherto and changing the spatial of 1847; St Alban’s Roman Catholic Church, pattern of the town centre: for example, widening 1844–46; and Nicholas Street Chapel, 1854. The George Street and creating the new link between growth of the town in the later nineteenth century George Street and Osborne Road.

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The town centre, showing the extent of the market buildings (Crown Copyright: RCAHMW).

The modern-day town of Pontypool, surrounded by nineteenth- and twentieth-century suburbs and satellite settlements (Crown Copyright: RCAHMW).

The results of twentieth- century redevelopment in the town centre (Crown Copyright: RCAHMW).

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The canal at Pontymoile Landownership dominate the area, acquiring extensive holdings — once the junction of on the west side of the river also, though they the Monmouthshire were never the sole owners of property here, as Canal with the the Tithe Survey records. Brecknock and The land on which the town was built had Abergavenny Canal formed part of the property of (Crown Copyright: Abbey, which was owned in the sixteenth century Both the Hanbury estate and the Wentsland RCAHMW). by the Morgan family of . By the early estate owned key industrial sites, but they eighteenth century, the estate had effectively also had substantial agricultural holdings. been partitioned, and the land west of the river Land in agricultural use sat comfortably belonged to Frances Morgan, who had married alongside industry, as nineteenth-century Edmund Bray, whose family were lords of the estate records show. 19 manor of Bryngwyn and Wentsland. The manor still owned substantial holdings in the early nineteenth century. Meanwhile, the Hanbury family were consolidating their hold on the east Connections: side of the river. This was partly about controlling Transport Networks resources for iron production, but also about acquiring sufficient land to establish a domestic holding — the family were not resident in the The industries in the immediate vicinity of area until about 1679, when land for a house and Pontypool were necessarily part of a complicated park was purchased by Capel Hanbury (his son network, both for the supply of raw materials was Major John Hanbury, to whom the and for the distribution of finished goods. introduction of tinplating is owed). By the late Industrialization was extensive across the region, seventeenth century, the Hanbury family had wherever it was possible to exploit the plentiful established a significant estate. They went on to natural resources of the area. Pontypool and its

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These arches once took a tram road and a water supply underneath the canal to the tinplate works at Lower Mill (Crown Copyright: RCAHMW).

the network of tram roads which linked individual Far left: The mouth of industrial sites with the canals. The Acts of an industrial tram road Parliament, which enabled the canals, made tunnel in the Italian Gardens (Crown specific provision for the construction of tram Copyright: RCAHMW). roads as an integral part of the canal system. Provision was also made for other tram roads to be built to any ironworks, quarry or coal mine within eight miles (12.87km) of the canal and its authorized tram roads. Pontypool served as an important hub in this system: a tram road from Blaenavon and connected with the canal immediate environs came to benefit in particular terminus at Pontnewynydd, and further tram from an amenable siting, which favoured the roads ran from Lower Race and Blaendare to the development of an important transport corridor canal at Pontymoile, and between Pontypool and and hub for a much wider area, from Blaenavon Trosnant. By 1836, there were also tram roads in the north to Crumlin in the west. connecting Cwmynyscoy with the canal at Pontymoile, which had become a significant The production of iron and its derivatives transport hub. depended on good transport links, both to bring raw materials to the sites of production The canal age proved to be short-lived, and to take finished products towards their however. Almost from the outset there were markets. It was a recognition of the growing difficulties supplying water to the canal between importance of the area that a series of canals Pontnewynydd and Pontymoile. It may have were projected here in the late eighteenth been for this reason that the Trosnant tram century. The Monmouthshire Canal was road was extended alongside the canal from promoted by an Act of Parliament in 1792 — Pontypool to Pontymoile in 1810, and that it ran from Newport to Pontnewynydd. A year another tram road from Pontnewynydd to later, a second canal was proposed: this was the Pontypool was completed alongside the canal Brecknock and Abergavenny Canal, which from in 1829. In addition, a tram road ran from Brecon reached a terminus at Llanfoist in 1805. either the Osborne Forge or the New Forge in In 1812, the canal was extended as far as Pontypool to Lower Mill at Pontymoile. It ran Pontymoile, establishing a link with the close to the river through the site of the Town Monmouthshire Canal. Forge (its route clearly shown on the 1834 plan of the forge), 20 and through a tunnel at what is The prime purpose of these canals was to now the Italian Gardens before again following provide industrial transport; just as important was the line of the river.

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Above: This engine shed Some of these tram roads survived until the and Canal Company, but it was leased to the is one of the few railway end of the nineteenth century. Some routes have Great Western Railway (GWR) in 1875 and structures to have been virtually completely obliterated, whilst others amalgamated with it in 1880. Meanwhile, the survived in Pontypool survive in part, such as the riverside route to GWR had built another line from Newport to (Crown Copyright: RCAHMW). Pontymoile; others have been subsumed in Pontypool via Caerleon (initiated in 1865 and modern roads (the route from Blaendare), completed in 1878), east of the earlier railway. Opposite: The modern and others survive as footpaths (the route The two railway lines intersected at Pontypool road occupies the site from Cwmynyscoy). Road, one mile (1.6km) from the town. Here too, of an earlier railway, the railway of the Monmouthshire Railway and itself partially built over the line of the In 1845 the canal company obtained an Act of Canal Company also connected with the Monmouthshire Canal Parliament enabling them to build a new railway Newport, Abergavenny and Hereford Railway (Crown Copyright: from Newport to Pontypool (Crane Street), to in 1853, which ran from Hereford to Pontypool. RCAHMW). improve their tram roads, and abandon the canal This line was worked initially by the above Pontymoile. By the time this line had and North Western Railway (LNWR), which opened for passenger traffic in 1852, the canal had obtained powers to build a line from between Pontypool and Pontnewynydd had Pontypool to the (TVR) at already been closed and the section between Quakers Yard in 1847. This was the Taff Vale Pontymoile and Pontypool was closed in the extension, and from Pontypool Road, this railway, following year. By 1854 the railway extended which was completed in 1858, took the line of northwards as far as Blaenavon, carrying mineral the canal as far as Trosnant. It then continued traffic as well as passengers. By 1855, all its tram west from Pontypool to a junction with the TVR roads had been converted into standard-gauge at Quakers Yard. The LNWR, which operated lines, eventually supplemented by new branch this route as well as the line from Hereford to lines serving collieries at Varteg, Cwmffrwdoer Pontypool, was absorbed by the GWR in 1863. and Cwmnantddu. There were stations at Clarence Street and Crane Street as well as at Pontypool Road. This railway was initially run by the canal The lines had all closed by the late 1970s and company, renamed as the Monmouthshire Railway were replaced by roads. 21

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Osborne Road, created In addition to these industrial transport systems, Street). Osborne Road was created at the at the end of the and in many cases preceding them, was an end of the nineteenth century to replace the nineteenth century as important network of roads. River crossings earlier through-route which ran by George a more direct route at Pontymoile, Pontypool and Pontnewynydd Street, Wainfelin Road and Merchants Hill north from the town centre (Crown were nodal points for the development of both to Pontnewynydd. Copyright: RCAHMW). settlement and industry, and routes following the Llwyd and Glyn Valleys converged at In the late twentieth century, the construction Trosnant. Industrial and urban development of major new routes in place of former railways brought changes to the road network, entailed radical change to the inherited road including: a new road from Old Furnace to pattern. It brought with it the loss of some of Trosnant in 1820 (Albion Road), which was the local road connections and created bigger an easier route than High Street, Tranch; and barriers between places. Redevelopment also a new road ‘to obviate the dangerous declivities brought with it the loss of some local roads, in Trosnant’, 22 from what is now Clarence Corner most notably Bridge Street, which disappeared to the top of Rockhill Road in 1822 (Clarence under the site of the Tesco store.

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Historical Topography

‘The town is built upon a hill, and the principal street cliff, overhanging the Afon Llwyd, and on the slope Pontypool in about is almost perpendicular and so badly paved that the of a declivity under impending hills, partly bare, 1830, showing the town post lad desired us to alight… we therefore walked and partly mantled with wood. The line of the perched on top of very steep slopes above the up to the marketplace, by a footway more easy of canal is seen winding above the town; a rapid river (The National 23 ascent.’ torrent, descending from a lake at the foot of the Library of Wales). Mynydd Maen, flows under the canal, and rushing The prime determinant of Pontypool’s character impetuously along the outskirts of the town, is its extraordinary valley setting. In 1801, precipitates itself into the Afon Llwyd, which rolls Archdeacon Coxe described the route from in an abyss beneath.’ 24 Blaenavon thus: ‘the vale is at first a deep and narrow glen, wholly occupied by the torrent, but The steep sides of the valley constrained the soon expands, and becomes cultivated… The left form of settlement, which was mainly linear side exhibits a succession of neat farmhouses, with before the late nineteenth century. Settlement small enclosures of corn and pasture, forming tended to avoid the valley floor, which was recesses in the wood… In the whole valley, which occupied by a series of iron-working sites — is five miles in length, there is scarcely a foot of the fast flowing river was an excellent source land not cultivated, or overspread with wood… of water power. It is only in very recent times approaching Pont y Pool, the vale diminished in that the limited flat land there has been breadth, and was closed with the rich and developed with housing. Historically, the town wooded eminences of Pont y Pool park. We soon had its back turned to the river, which continued reached the commencement of the canal, and to be the case even after industry had left. Late after crossing it over three stone bridges, twentieth-century retail developments gave little descended to the town… The town of Pont y consideration to their river-facing elevations and, Pool is singularly placed on the edge of a steep even today, the river is a neglected amenity.

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If there were strong natural constraints on the long-established. The route from Pontymoile to Above: Wainfelin grew nature of settlement, there were others that Trosnant continued via Bridge Street towards Sow up in former fields were historical and man-made. Landownership Hill and served as the main axis of settlement in (Crown Copyright: RCAHMW). influenced the distribution of land use to a very this area. The new road from Trosnant to Rockhill, marked degree, and the land on the east side of created in the 1820s, followed the line of the Opposite: Pontypool the river was reserved for the interests of the canal, and the space between the old road and grew in linear fashion, Hanbury family and remains remarkably the canal was rapidly developed, as the 1836 map following the valley to undeveloped. A more fragmented pattern of of Pontypool records. Similarly, the route through either side of the crossing ownership on the west side allowed the town the town centre, which originally went via Hanbury point at the bridge (Crown Copyright: and its environs to develop in relatively piecemeal Road, Commercial Street and George Street, to RCAHMW). fashion, plot-by-plot or field-by-field. The growth Wainfelin and Merchants Hill, was probably an of the suburbs to the west clearly shows how old one. It was only supplanted in importance in development was accommodated to the earlier the late nineteenth century when Osborne Road field pattern. For example, the area bounded by was created as a more amenable connection from Albion Road, Upper Bridge Street, Crumlin Street the town centre to Pontnewynydd and Blaenavon and Lower Park Terrace was a field in the 1830s (it was initiated by the Local Government Board — its name, Cai Nicholas, is recalled in Nicholas in 1878). Crane Street was probably also an early Street. In Wainfelin, Edward Street was fitted into road line; it continues as a footpath dropping a narrow field and Wainfelin Avenue marks a steeply down the hill below Commercial Street former field boundary. and aligns directly with the bridge. The modern road up the hill (Park Road) was in existence by Transport routes have also helped to shape 1835, but may have been a relatively recent settlement. The first framework for settlement contrivance to allow easier access to and from was provided by roads that were probably the bridge.

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The Tesco supermarket and its car park, built over the original line of Upper Bridge Street, and diverting the direct route from Trosnant to Sow Hill (Crown Copyright: RCAHMW).

Away from the town centre to the west, the of the nineteenth century and was one of the 1836 map of Pontypool records a settlement factors that helped to contain and shape it. As the pattern that was more scattered, though still canal was replaced by the railway, and as railways strung out along roads. Late nineteenth-century in turn were replaced by major roads, these suburban growth in this area also used existing boundaries have hardened, leading to a much arteries, but filled in the fields between them. In greater separation between areas. Some of the the process, many of the earlier buildings at Sow original connections have also been severed, most Hill and Crumlin Street (once Wesley Street) notably the direct link from Trosnant to Sow Hill were replaced. via Upper Bridge Street, which is now blocked by the Tesco site, and the direct route from the First the canal and then the railway created southern part of Pontymoile at Maesderwen to boundaries between one area and another, the crossroads near the bridge. establishing a firm separation between the town centre and its western suburbs, for example. The canal arrived before the major urban development

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The Character of Building

Vernacular cottages at Tranch are a reminder of rural traditions (Crown Copyright: RCAHMW).

The Chronology of Building more buildings like these within the town centre and at Trosnant, but that they were the casualties of development in the nineteenth and The town has a long urban history, but there twentieth centuries. Not all these casualties of are few buildings within it that betray this — redevelopment, however, were vernacular in the earliest known survival is the former corn character — there were some notable examples market of 1731. The development of a town of substantial urban properties that were lost with definite urban character took shape in an either to redevelopment in about 1900, or to area where existing settlement had been quite clearance during the twentieth century. different. Dispersed rural building traditions are still in evidence in the surrounding area — at Pontymoile, Trefechan and Tranch, some buildings predate much of what surrounds them and have a vernacular character and scale. Early photographs show that at one time there were

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Early houses in The early decades of the nineteenth century are traditions is the use of render. In Pontypool, Trosnant, cleared in the first period to have left a real mark on the limewash is still occasionally found on ancillary twentieth-century character of the town; but another significant period buildings, but render is much more common. redevelopment ( of investment at the end of the century introduced Notwithstanding extensive renewal, there are still Trust Collection). some of its most striking buildings, as well as most buildings in the town displaying their historical of the residential areas surrounding it. This was rendered finish, with scribed courses in imitation followed by another period of settlement growth of ashlar. A render finish also distinguishes some of in the 1920s, with limited speculative development the earliest suburban houses in the area around and extensive public-housing schemes. Further Nicholas Street and Park Terrace. The influence of public-housing schemes followed the Second World the gothic revival reached even relatively humble War. There was also small-scale, but cumulatively building projects after about 1870, and stone began extensive, private housing development, for example to be exposed in commercial and residential at Tranch. development. Pennant sandstone naturally occurs in a range of colours. This is exhibited in the town either in a polychrome effect in single buildings, or in the careful sourcing of stone to achieve a uniformity Building Materials of finish, which varied from one building to the next. The stone could be rough-dressed or rock-faced to The immediate area yielded plentiful supplies of give a rugged, muscular effect. stone, with Pennant sandstone the predominant building material. This stone did not readily lend itself to fine dressing and coursing however, and was seldom exposed before the late nineteenth century. Traditionally, stone was limewashed, but a characteristic of more polite urban building

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Far left: Distinctive rubble stone at The Globe Hotel (Crown Copyright: RCAHMW).

Left: Bath stone ashlar on the former Midland Bank (Crown Copyright: RCAHMW).

Rock-faced rubble combined with brick and terracotta (Crown Copyright: RCAHMW).

Render was typically used in building projects of the early and mid- nineteenth century (Crown Copyright: RCAHMW).

Brick was also in widespread use, especially Prestigious projects were more likely to use as dressings on stone buildings. It was not often imported materials; for example, Bath stone used as the principal building material until the ashlar was used for Crane Street Baptist Church, twentieth century, notwithstanding the presence for Barclays Bank (built as the London and of several brickworks in the vicinity of the Provincial Bank in 1893), and for the Midland town. There are, however, some good examples Bank of 1910–11. of its use, including glazed brick and terracotta. Even though the regional vernacular tradition Whatever the material, it is common to find had been for split stone-tiled roofs, by the distinctions between the main façade and the side nineteenth century slate had become ubiquitous. and rear elevations. Façades are usually emphasized It still dominates the town and the use of other by the quality of finish and detail, with a rougher materials, even as replacements, is rare. finish used elsewhere, and for ancillary buildings.

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Decorative brickwork is a striking feature of these terraced houses (Crown Copyright: RCAHMW).

Right: Brick began to supplant stone as the main building material in the early twentieth century (Crown Copyright: RCAHMW).

Far right: Split stone tiles were the traditional roofing material before slate became widely available in the nineteenth century (Crown Copyright: RCAHMW).

Right: An unusual and stylish example of the use of glazed brick (Crown Copyright: RCAHMW).

Far right: Contrasting stone used for side and main façades (Crown Copyright: RCAHMW).

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Early nineteenth-century Building Types commercial building in a Georgian tradition (Crown Copyright: Commercial Building RCAHMW).

‘Demolition of the old Crown Hotel, and erection of fine modern hotel, and great development in Osborne Road, and erection of palatial premises for the London and Provincial bank speak volumes for the go-ahead character of the townspeople.’ 25

As it developed in the nineteenth century, Pontypool became the commercial hub of its extensive hinterland, and the town centre is essentially a highly specialized commercial quarter where almost every building was built for commerce, the main exceptions being civic and

Far left: A late nineteenth-century commercial building using varied materials and forms to striking effect (Crown Copyright: RCAHMW).

Left: This row on Osborne Road is a good example of large-scale planned development (Crown Copyright: RCAHMW).

The market is an excellent, large-scale example of a single commercial development (Crown Copyright: RCAHMW).

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Banks are amongst the most striking individual commercial developments in the town centre, each with a distinctive signature style (Crown Copyright: RCAHMW).

religious institutions. Commercial building has its speculative developments with a unified design. own style, various permutations of which are In much of the town, individual buildings readily apparent here. Early examples respect a predominate with a variety of scale and size that Georgian tradition with restrained classicism, lends considerable character to the streetscape, symmetry and generally simple rendered surfaces. notwithstanding extensive loss of original detail. In the later nineteenth century, a more expressive Many of these buildings are relatively simple in style was characterized by greater modelling of style, but Pontypool has a particularly fine series façades, using a variety of materials and detail. of ‘signature buildings’ with strong individual character. Some of the most prominent are banks This was the general development of architectural occupying prime positions at road junctions, fashion but, within these broad parameters, there designed to make full use of their sites (HSBC, are three main distinctions in commercial building about 1910–15; Barclays, about 1880; and in the town: buildings can be individual National Westminster, converted from an earlier developments lacking exceptional features, they office building in 1905 and making the most of can be individual developments with strong the new junction formed by the creation of individual character, or they can be large-scale Osborne Road in 1878).

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Far left: Fine commercial architecture at The George (Crown Copyright: RCAHMW).

Left: The former Crown Hotel (Crown Copyright: RCAHMW).

Far left: The former Clarence Hotel (Crown Copyright: RCAHMW).

Left: The former Co-operative building is an excellent example of the art deco style (Crown Copyright: RCAHMW).

Far left: Individual buildings in an identical style make up this terrace of shops on Osborne Road (Crown Copyright: RCAHMW).

Left: Lion Buildings provide an early example of commercial development designed as a unit (Crown Copyright: RCAHMW).

Public houses and hotels were also often essential unity of these developments on the designed to attract attention. Good examples one hand, and respecting the diversity of include: The George (1905), The Crown Hotel, individual building projects on the other, are and The Clarence Hotel. There were also important keys to reinforcing the character some flamboyant individual shops, such as of the town centre. Manchester House and the art deco former Co-operative building. The market itself also represents an individual development, albeit Civic and Religious Buildings on an exceptional scale. Civic and religious buildings are an extremely Pontypool also boasts some very good important component of the scene, where examples of large-scale planned developments distinctive individual design was often a reflection from different periods, notably the Lion Buildings, of patronage. This is certainly true for the town built as a row of shops by G. V. Maddox of hall (1854), St James’s Church (1821 and 1854) in 1840, and the Osborne Road and the library (1908). These buildings are notable development. Maintaining or reinforcing the for the use of imported materials, often finely

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Right: The town hall, a major civic building of 1854 (Crown Copyright: RCAHMW).

Far right: St James’s Church hall, built in about 1910 (Crown Copyright: RCAHMW).

Right: The Methodist Chapel on Nicholas Street, built in 1854 (Crown Copyright: RCAHMW).

Far right: The public library, built in 1908 (Crown Copyright: RCAHMW).

Right: Examples of rural building traditions can still be found here and there in Pontypool (Crown Copyright: RCAHMW).

finished; they were designed by named architects, Residential Development often from outside the area, who used polite architectural styles. For example: St John the ‘Pontypool is a clean town rendered famous by its Divine’s Church was designed by J. Coates- manufactory of japanned ware. The houses are of Carter; St Alban’s Roman Catholic Church by stone, whitewashed, covered with stone slate.’ 26 J. J. Scoles; and the town hall, by Bidlake and Lovatt of Wolverhampton. Crane Street Baptist Although the town is decisively urban in Church introduced the Greek revival to character, remants of rural building traditions have Pontypool in 1847. survived in its hinterland; for example at Twmpath and Gelli-pistyll, Tranch, Park Cottage, St David’s Close (formerly Pen y Garn Farm), and various houses at Trevethin.

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Examples of decorative ironwork (Crown Copyright: RCAHMW).

Urban Residential Building rendered but, for the majority of development dating from the late nineteenth century, building materials are generally either rock-faced rubble The vast majority of residential building before brought to courses (often snecked and the twentieth century in Pontypool and its rock-faced and combined with brick for suburbs dates from the two decades at the end dressings), or brick (often used as a facing on of the nineteenth century. Most is terraced rubble buildings). The brick used for dressings is housing, or small rows and pairs, with only a generally a bright facing brick in red and yellow. relatively few individually built houses. There is a The majority of the houses, of whatever scale, clear hierarchy of housing types, ranging from have small front gardens. Boundary detail is a very modest terraced houses to quite substantial villas; important feature of the town — rubble or brick because of the limited period of building, there is walls and gate piers, with cast-iron railings, often quite a simple set of variations. The few early to very decorative, and perhaps made locally. mid-nineteenth-century buildings are usually

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Right: Small terraced houses with a single upper window (Crown Copyright: RCAHMW).

Far right: Terraced houses with two upper windows (Crown Copyright: RCAHMW).

Right: Terraced houses with bay windows (Crown Copyright: RCAHMW).

Far right: Larger terraced houses with full-height bay windows and generous gardens (Crown Copyright: RCAHMW).

Examples of larger houses with more elaborate detailing (Crown Copyright: RCAHMW).

Distinctions rest in the size of house (most Terraces are either composed of a string of terraced houses are single-fronted, some only identical houses, or are unified in some way, wide enough to warrant a single window whether by a designed composition using gabled upstairs, but most with two), and in the quality blocks as a centrepiece or as end-stops, or by of detail, such as single or two-storey bay the use of detail which continues across from windows, decorative façade treatment, etc. one house to the next. Examples of the former Larger houses often have a gabled front and are on Upper Park Terrace and Clarence Street, a more elaborate composition. and Wainfelin is rich in examples of the latter.

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Far left: A simple terrace of repeated identical houses (Crown Copyright: RCAHMW).

Left: A terrace designed as a symmetrical composition, with advanced gables at either end of the row (Crown Copyright: RCAHMW).

Far left: A simple terrace, the houses unified by continuous stone detailing (Crown Copyright: RCAHMW).

Left and below: Terraced houses, linked by rich brick detailing (Crown Copyright: RCAHMW).

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Character Areas

This fine building was probably built in the eighteenth century — The George replaced it in 1905 (© The Francis Frith Collection).

1. Town Centre of what has been lost, including some buildings of real vernacular character, as well as some more sophisticated urban buildings, probably Historical Background from the eighteenth century. The modern town centre is very much the The early development of the town centre is product of nineteenth-century growth tempered obscure, but we know that there was enough by twentieth-century renewal. The map of 1836 of a town to warrant the establishment of a shows that most of the modern street pattern market in the late seventeenth century, followed was already in place, with two main axes of by the purpose-built market house and assembly development. One of these was the line of room in 1730. The Corn Market is the earliest Commercial Street (originally Caroline Street) standing building in the town centre. Other and George Street as far as the canal bridge buildings that date from before the nineteenth (now the junction with Malthouse Lane), which century were replaced when the town’s was probably an early route up the valley, going commercial importance consolidated in the thence via what is now Wainfelin Road, with a nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. secondary line following the east bank of the There are some images that give an indication canal. The second axis was Crane Street, which

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may have been another early route leading to created in the early twentieth century). The The link between George the river crossing, where a bridge was recorded railway was in turn superseded by the A4043 Street and Osborne in the fifteenth century. The more amenable and we must imagine that, with each successive Road, the retail developments on Crane gradient of Park Road was already in existence change, a harder barrier was introduced between Street and George Street, by the early nineteenth century. Development the town centre and the settlements to its west. and the Riverside car on Crane Street was concentrated above the Another radical change was the creation of park are just some junction with Commercial Street, and although Osborne Road at the end of the nineteenth examples of twentieth- it continued across the canal towards Sow Hill, century, reorienting the town to the north away century changes to the it was more piecemeal there. Development in from George Street and Wainfelin Road. town centre (Crown Copyright: RCAHMW). the valley floor was limited, but it was the prime area for the location of industry. New Forge Twentieth-century losses include redevelopment (later Town Forge) was served by a substantial on the north side of George Street. On the pond, and another works (the original Town west side of Osborne Road, The Theatre Royal 27 Forge until about 1831) lay immediately was demolished in 1960 and a new road link south-west of Town Bridge, with a feeder with George Street was created. Several public supplying water from a pond on the north- houses and the Tabernacle Baptist Church of west side of the road. 1836 were all demolished on the west side of Crane Street in 1960. The west side of Crane The most radical changes to the form of the Street then became a car park and was town came first with the substitution of the redeveloped for retail in 2000. This area had canal, and the tram road alongside it, by a railway. once contained several courts and streets, The railway did not entirely follow the line of the which connected through to the upper end canal, but from Clarence Corner to Crane Street of George Street. The redevelopment did not ran somewhat further east, along the boundary recreate these links and there was also piecemeal of properties on St James’s Field (the road was redevelopment elsewhere.

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Dense development patterns in the town centre (Crown Copyright: RCAHMW).

Glantorfaen House — courts and back lanes to the north-west of a grandiose residence Crane Street and at Rosemary Lane were lost on the edge of the in modern redevelopment, though the opening town centre (Crown up of space and through routes between Copyright: RCAHMW). Glantorfaen Road and Market Street is also a consequence of modern redevelopment, following the closure of Crane Street Station. Buildings are strongly oriented to the streets, and where rear elevations are exposed to view, it is often to the detriment of the townscape. Notable exceptions to this are those banks which were designed to exploit prominent corner sites, and the large houses on the southern edge of the The Character of Building town centre (such as Glantorfaen House).

The town centre is tightly developed as a series The town centre is dominated by commercial of near continuous frontages. Space for building building, and the main distinction is between was constrained, and many occupied virtually the individual developments and unified planned whole of their plots; vacant space is rare, and The developments. Amongst the former there is Globe Hotel is exceptional in having a clearly considerable variety in size and scale, ranging defined rear yard. The small yard at the rear of from narrow frontages to such large the former Crown Hotel is another example of developments as the former Crown Hotel or enclosed space within the town centre. Other the HSBC Bank. These developments span from

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Left: Distinctive commercial developments in the town centre (Crown Copyright: RCAHMW).

Left: Varied building patterns on the principal streets (Crown Copyright: RCAHMW).

Far left: An early example of planned commercial development (Crown Copyright: RCAHMW).

Left: A late nineteenth- century example of planned commercial development (Crown Copyright: RCAHMW).

Left: Surviving original detail on Osborne Road (Crown Copyright: RCAHMW).

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Above: A mix of materials and styles characterizes development on the west side of George Street (Crown Copyright: RCAHMW).

Right: The exuberant use of materials on The George contrast with the simple renders used on earlier buildings (Crown Copyright: RCAHMW).

Far right: The Bath stone ashlar façades of the bank buildings flank the rendered front of the about 1830 to about 1930 and this relativ elyUnified long planned developments are also an early market hall (Crown period of development, coupled with the variety important feature of the town centre, ranging Copyright: RCAHMW). of individual projects, lends considerable from the Lion House development of 1840, to distinction to the town centre. Examples can be the Osborne Road development of about 1890. found along Commercial Street, where Pearl Both of these are unified by the rhythm of façade House and the former Co-operative store are detail — the repeated windows in plain recesses high-quality art deco buildings, whose large-scale in Lion House, and a more elaborate scheme in and relatively austere surface treatment is in Osborne Road that includes pilasters, a contrast to the piecemeal development pattern continuous eaves band, and the line of shallow elsewhere along the street, which is mostly oriel bays. Piecemeal renewal of detail has assembled from single buildings with different undermined some of the unity of this terrace, storey heights and façade treatment. Some of the but it remains a very strong composition. most distinctive individual buildings are the banks and public houses — amongst the latter, for Variety in the organization of development, and example, The George and The White Hart. its relatively long chronology, has led to a very

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Left: A rare surviving example of an original shopfront on Market Street (Crown Copyright: RCAHMW).

Far left: Rough rubble in a rare surviving industrial building — part of the former Castle Brewery (Crown Copyright: RCAHMW).

Left: A fine example of a late nineteenth-century commercial building, with display windows on two floors (Crown Copyright: RCAHMW).

varied palette of materials. The earlier retention rate for original detail is poor, especially town-centre buildings had render finishes, some at ground-floor level. Early shop fronts are of which survive (the west side of George Street rare survivals indeed and should be treasured. includes some good examples interspersed with Upper floors have fared better, and many Edwardian and art deco building). Render was buildings retain original detail at this level, supplanted by exposed stone and brick in the including some examples of nineteenth- later nineteenth century, best exemplified in century fenestration. developments on Crane Street, including the market, Jubilee Buildings and some shops. Early On the edge of the town centre, some residential twentieth-century building schemes often used development also survives — large houses at the imported materials, for example faience and southern end, and a cluster of small terraced Portland stone. houses to the north. In this area too, there is one surviving industrial building, a relic of The Castle Although the general form of building Brewery and a rare example of the rough use development of all kinds remains strong, the of local stone with no attempt at dressing.

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Right: The town hall, Hanbury Road (Crown Copyright: RCAHMW).

Far right: The spacious layout of buildings amongst greenery is characteristic of Hanbury Road (Crown Copyright: RCAHMW).

Right: A fine early twentieth-century house, built as the vicarage to St James’s Church (Crown Copyright: RCAHMW).

2. Hanbury Road The Character of Building

Pontypool gains considerable character from the Historical Background grouping of civic and religious buildings along Hanbury Road and its immediate environs, not Pontypool town centre has remained resolutely only from the strong design of individual buildings, separate from Trosnant, and the distinctive but also from the spaciousness of layout which character of Hanbury Road perpetuates this characterizes them. Unlike the town centre and separation. Possibly the land here came early into Trosnant, the civic and religious buildings here the ownership of the Hanbury family and was are set in well-defined individual plots, and are not released for development. It was certainly designed to be seen from more than one the Hanbury family who funded the building of position. Individually designed, often by named the town hall here in 1854, and they may have architects, they adopt strong architectural styles, provided patronage for St James’s Church, which and their individuality is reinforced by the use of was originally built in 1821. In the twentieth exotic materials. The small housing development century, development remained limited, confined on St James’s Field is a good group of typical to civic and religious building, and a small Pontypool villas, their brick façades lively with bay residential development. windows, gables, and decorative detail.

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3. Trosnant the new road to Rockhill in 1820. This new Trosnant before road (Clarence Road) swung round towards redevelopment in the Pontymoile, closely following the line of the canal. mid-twentieth century (Crown Copyright: It effectively bypassed the original through-route ‘Trosnant is the most ancient part of Pontypool MOD). and contains many dwellings, mostly cottages (Bridge Street and Trosnant Street), which was of great age.’ 28 finally severed by the development of the leisure centre car park. Further development took place Historical Background between Bridge Street and Clarence Road, including housing and a corn mill, presumably powered by the Glyn Brook. In the later Trosnant is generally thought to be one of the nineteenth century the town gasworks was earliest focal points for settlement in the area, established in previously open ground to the and the site of one of the early japanning works in east of this lane. the eighteenth century. The map of 1836 clearly shows it as a separate settlement, almost as large Trosnant occupied a pivotal position in the valley, in extent as Pontypool town. Its main axis is the sited along the principal through-route, and at line of what is now Bridge Street, which then a junction with what was to become the main continued across the canal to Sow Hill. Extensive way into the town centre. This position was clearance in the second half of the twentieth consolidated by the creation of Albion Road in century damaged all sense of a coherent the early nineteenth century as a direct route to streetscape here, but it was only the creation of the town from the west. The canal and later the the A4043 and later of the Tesco supermarket, railway strengthened these local connections; which virtually obliterated what had once been a Clarence Street Station was one of three stations significant through-route. There was also some serving Pontypool. The closure of the railways in development along what is now Clarence Street the twentieth century and the substitution of as far as The Clarence Inn, but the section west of their lines by new roads, as well as the loss of the Bridge Street probably dates from the creation of original through-route via Bridge Street, meant that some of this connectivity was lost.

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Right: The fomer Clarence Hotel (Crown Copyright: RCAHMW).

Far right: Modern detail on early nineteenth-century buildings on Clarence Street (Crown Copyright: RCAHMW).

Right: Historical building patterns at Trosnant, dwarfed by the Tesco supermarket development (Crown Copyright: RCAHMW).

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Far left: Large houses at Cwm Fields (Crown Copyright: RCAHMW).

Left: The early route of Bridge Street (Crown Copyright: RCAHMW).

Left: Cwm Fields, in a mesh of historical and modern routeways (Crown Copyright: RCAHMW).

Growth at Trosnant remained limited after the of the twentieth created satellite settlements. mid-nineteenth century, though there was some One of these was the linear development along consolidation in existing areas of development. Clarence Road; another was the small area to A continuous building line on the west side of the north of Cwm Fields between the two Clarence Street was established, for example, railway lines. In this area a small suburb was and there was also some rebuilding, such as that created, its street pattern based on an existing at The Clarence Hotel. What had once been lane from Blaendare (Victoria Road), a footpath quite a densely developed residential area was which crossed the railway at Clarence Street subject to extensive clearance in the twentieth Station, and a tram road from Cwmynyscoy century, such that the original focus of (School View). Although the modern road development has been all but lost. network (the A472) has severed the link from the old Blaendare road to Pontymoile, the route Meanwhile, new residential development at the to the site of Clarence Street Station at Clarence end of the nineteenth century and the early years Place survives as a footbridge.

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Right: The former Quaker Meeting House, Bridge Street (Crown Copyright: RCAHMW).

Far right: Trosnant House (Crown Copyright: RCAHMW).

Right: Rare original detail on Clarence Street (Crown Copyright: RCAHMW).

Far right: Upper Trosnant Baptist Church dates back to 1826 (Crown Copyright: RCAHMW).

The Character of Building where continuous building lines comprise a series of small-scale individual developments. Extensive enveloping work in the 1980s Several early buildings of marked vernacular introduced standard poor-quality shopfront character have been recorded in Trosnant. Now detail on Clarence Street, but there remain only one survives — the small cottage on the old remnants of early character, including pilasters line of Bridge Street. There remain elements of on the block adjacent to Bridge Street, scribed vernacular character in the outbuildings between render on no.10, and shopfront detail and Trosnant Street and Bridge Street, with their downpipes on no. 21B. rough limewash finish.

On Rockhill Road, early twentieth-century Elsewhere on Bridge Street, only piecemeal housing is typical of Pontypool: terraced with development survives, including Trosnant House either unifying detail, or conceived as a and the former Quaker Meeting House of about composition using gables to punctuate the row. 1800. The role of Clarence Street as part of the major axis through the town is reflected in the relatively dense development pattern there,

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Rich architectural detailing at Cwm Fields (Crown Copyright: RCAHMW).

The development to the north of Cwm Fields around Victoria Road is a remarkably coherent settlement area that had its own small church. It includes a particularly good range of house types, including some substantial villas in spacious gardens, which are distinguished both by their scale and architectural flamboyance. There are also good examples of terraced houses linked by the use of strong polychrome brick detailing or as designed compositions. Brick is not just used for dressing here, but also as the main building material in the larger houses and in one of the smaller terraces.

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Pontypool Park (Crown 4. Pontypool Park 1752–65, 1800–10 and 1872. A deer park was Copyright: RCAHMW). created in about 1700 by Major John Hanbury, and the main drive from the gates at Pontymoile Historical Background Bridge was in existence by about 1720. Various changes to the layout and character of the park and garden were made during the nineteenth ‘The mansion is singularly situated at the extremity century. Amongst the most important of these of the grounds, a small distance from the town, was: the removal of the ironworks from their which (though seated on the perpendicular of original site on the north side of the river (west the cliff, rising from the opposite bank of the Avon) of where the leisure centre now is) in 1831, the is so judiciously concealed by plantations of oak, reconstruction of the entrance gates, and the beech, and poplars, that scarcely a single house construction of a bank planted with trees to is discerned.’ 29 screen the town from the house and park. Other Pontypool Park was the seat of the Hanbury important nineteenth-century components of the family who developed industries in the area from park are the American Gardens, established in about 1576, but did not establish a residence here 1851, and the kitchen gardens, which had been until the late seventeenth century. It is possible established by the 1880s. Public ownership of that land on the east side of the river formed the house and park in 1920 inaugurated another part of Richard Hanbury’s original land lease at epoch of change, as the house became a school the end of the sixteenth century, since it would and various recreational additions were made have provided a good source of timber for to the park: tennis courts (1924), bowling green charcoal; but the ironworks established here in (1925), rugby ground (1925), and bandstand 1575–76 did not come into Hanbury hands until (1931). The kitchen gardens were partially the late seventeenth century. Capel Hanbury was developed for housing, and a major public-housing purchasing land for the park in 1677 and 1689, development at Penygarn was inserted into what and the first house was built in about 1694; had previously been part of the park. The leisure it was then successively extended and altered in centre and ski slope were added in 1974.

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The Character of Building The Rustic Lodge in 5. Pontymoile the American Gardens, built in 1841 (Crown Successive episodes in the history of the house Copyright: RCAHMW). have each left their trace, though it is dominated Historical Background firstly by the early nineteenth-century work of Capel Hanbury Leigh, who not only remodelled Pontymoile was probably one of the first focal and reoriented the house, but was also points for industrial activity and associated responsible for building the stables as well as for settlement in the area, though the eponymous work in the park itself. Twentieth-century work, ironworks were probably sited in Pontypool associated with public ownership, included Park. The first tinplate works was established in additions to the house linked to its new use as a Pontymoile in the early eighteenth century, school, as well as developments within the park probably at what is now Old Estate Yard, and the itself. Important architectural components of the works at Lower Mill, which supplied it, were set park include the Shell Hermitage, ice house, and up in the 1720s. In 1807, another large tinplate kitchen garden walls (though neglected, these are manufactory (Pontymoile Tinworks) opened to largely intact). The Penygarn estate is a large the south-west of the bridge; it closed in 1960. 1920s development by the local authority. Beyond A tramway connected this site with the works at it, the American Gardens have survived as an Lower Mill (running on the line of the back lane important mid-nineteenth-century arboretum. to the rear of Fountain Road and probably a continuation of the tramway from the north of the town centre), and a feeder took water from the river to Lower Mill. The tunnels taking the tramway and feeder beneath the canal survive, and one building (and a gate pier) survive on the site of Pontymoile Tinworks.

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Above: The toll house connectivity — indeed the roads which had built at the junction of converged here from Cwmynyscoy and Penyrheol the Monmouthshire were taken under the railway via a new link, Canal with the Brecknock and creating a crossroads at the intersection of Abergavenny Canal Fountain Road and Rockhill Road. The creation (Crown Copyright: of the A472 on the line of the railway, and other RCAHMW). highway improvements, have done extensive damage to local links, isolating the Maesderwen Right: The last surviving area and severing the original line of Fountain building on the site of the Pontymoile Road and Rockhill Road. Tinworks (Crown Copyright: RCAHMW). This area was a natural focus for settlement, and there is still a small nucleus of relatively early buildings at the foot of Rockhill Road, though Pontymoile was also a significant interchange there have been considerable losses in this point, not only as an early river crossing point area. One of the survivals is a formal and junction of north–south and east–west eighteenth-century house, which is thought routes, but also as the junction of the to have become the truck house of the Monmouthshire Canal and the Brecknock and Monmouthshire Canal Company in the early Abergavenny Canal to the south-east. Here too nineteenth century; the terrace adjoining it is an tram roads from Cwymynyscoy and Blaendwr unusual example of early nineteenth-century terminated adjacent to the canal, south-west of formality. Residential development here was the river crossing. The construction of the Great limited until the 1920s, when terraced houses Western Railway on the line of the canal linked this nucleus with the secondary focus at disrupted but did not entirely destroy this the junction of the canals.

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Far left: An eighteenth- century house, thought to have been used as the truck house of the Monmouthshire Canal Company in the nineteenth century, with early nineteenth-century terraced houses beyond (Crown Copyright: RCAHMW).

Left: A small vernacular house close to the river crossing at Pontymoile (Crown Copyright: RCAHMW).

Far left: An early vernacular building at Maesderwen (Crown Copyright: RCAHMW).

Left: A group of houses built in about 1845 by the Pontypool Park estate (Crown Copyright: RCAHMW). The Character of Building 6. Osborne Road

The main focus of settlement in Pontymoile was the road junction close to the river Historical Background crossing. Here a single small vernacular cottage survives, together with the altogether Osborne Road is a development of the late grander group comprising The Old Truck nineteenth century. It was initiated in 1878 and House and nos 64–72 Rockhill Road. Despite the 1882 Ordance Survey map shows the considerable alteration to detail, this group beginnings of development along its line. Dates retains remnants of the original scribed render, on the buildings themselves show that much of and a formality of design that is a clear the development was taking place in the 1890s indication of status. The junction was once and was substantially complete by 1901. A second more defined, with housing on the opposite link to George Street was created in about 1970. side of the road that was replaced in the late twentieth century by commercial development Osborne Road supplanted George Street– on a different alignment. Public housing (of Merchants Hill as the main road route up the valley, the 1920s) links this area with the Old Estate itself supplanted by the creation of the A4043 on Yard, where various former industrial buildings the line of the former railway in the 1970s. It was and a cottage row of possible eighteenth- or also severed by the creation of a second road — early nineteenth-century origins survives, albeit Riverside — in the valley bottom. The northern much altered. Another significant focal point section of road beyond the junction with Riverside of early development is at Maesderwen, which may have been an existing route, perhaps even the was once directly linked by road to the rest tramway from Pontnewynydd to Pontypool, which of Pontymoile. was built in 1829 and ran parallel to the canal.

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Above: The late nineteenth-century linear development along Osborne Road contrasts with the more haphazard layout adopted for more recent housing on the valley floor (Crown Copyright: RCAHMW).

Right: Carefully composed groups of houses are characteristic of development on Osborne Road (Crown Copyright: RCAHMW). Below the road lay Town Forge with its large scale, and a fine chapel of 1905. Smaller pond for water supply and, close to the bridge at purpose-built shops of varying sizes with Pontnewynydd, Osborne Forge. The valley floor upper-floor bay windows and some surviving was developed and redeveloped for housing and shopfronts then give place to residential a multi-storey car park in the second half of the development. This comprises a range of housing twentieth century — all traces of the industry types, including paired villas with gabled frontages which had preceded it were lost. and sometimes bay windows, or modest terraces without bay windows but with simple detail (for The Character of Building example, painted brick surrounds to doors and windows). Other rows are distinguished by Osborne Road has a very strong and coherent continuous decoration — bands of brick linking character, unified by its single period of all houses, for example, or, in one instance, a development and consistent use of stone, mostly repeated composition of pointed arched rock-faced rubble with brick dressings. At the windows and triple gables for each pair of houses town-centre end, it boasts a good example of in the row. Many of the houses have small front unified commercial development on an ambitious gardens and many retain good boundary detail.

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Far left: Modest terraced houses characterize the northern end of Osborne Road (Crown Copyright: RCAHMW).

Left: An interesting modern interpretation of terraced housing (Crown Copyright: RCAHMW).

Inter-war public housing at Penygarn (Crown Copyright: RCAHMW).

With the exception of a single large gothic house, development was gradually introduced in the the northern section of the road consists of more course of the nineteenth century. One of the first modest terraces with limited detail. An interesting buildings here was probably the Baptist Chapel, modern interpretation of the terrace occupies followed by the Baptist College (later the the site of the Drill Hall. Intermediate School) in 1835. It was only in the twentieth century that residential development on any scale took place here. Old Penygarn is an oddly isolated development comprising small 7. Penygarn and terraces and some distinctive large villas. Perhaps East of the River its developer intended to create a more substantial suburb here but, if so, it did not take off. It was only after the council had acquired the Historical Background park that development of any significance took place — Penygarn is a large public-housing scheme of the 1920s and 1930s, with limited Development on the east side of the river was speculative development at its southern edge. limited until the twentieth century. This was essentially an agricultural landscape, with small-scale industrial activity (quarrying) close to The Character of Building the river, and a pattern of woodland and fields to the north of the road from Pontypool bridge to Close to the river, the clustered buildings at medieval St Cadoc’s Church. South of the road, Woodhouse represent a forge manager’s house the expanse of Pontypool Park was only and associated cottages, almost the only intrusion interrupted by Pen y Garn Farm. Into this of industrial settlement onto the east bank of the essentially agricultural landscape, small-scale river. Pen y Garn Farm survives as Park Cottage.

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Above: Distinctive street originally have been contrasted with exposed patterns and building brick. Although little original detail survives, the layouts at Penygarn estate retains a coherent character. (Crown Copyright: RCAHMW).

Right: High-quality architectural detailing at 8. Sow Hill Old Penygarn (Crown Copyright: RCAHMW). Historical Background

The 1836 map of Pontypool shows that there was already significant development in this area. The complicated pattern of roads suggests Old Penygarn is a development of about 1905; its development along earlier tracks and field terraces are typical of Pontypool, but the larger boundaries, with a new road from Old Furnace houses are very distinctive and very well to Trosnant (Albion Road) on a more amenable preserved. Penygarn represents a good example gradient than the earlier route, which ran via of public-housing development, with its carefully Tranch High Street. Development was planned layouts and use of a limited range of concentrated along this earlier line and on house types combined in groups of two or four. Crumlin Street (then known as Wesley Street). Roughcast render predominates, though this may By 1881, this area had massively expanded and

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Innovative patterns of development highlighted in this mid-twentieth- century view (Crown Copyright: MOD).

An older survival on Twmpath Road (Crown Copyright: RCAHMW).

new streets had been established in former fields. been completed, along with John Street and This development probably began in the 1850s Capel Street. By 1881 also, there had been (the Wesleyan Methodist Chapel is dated 1854), development further west around Gwent Street immediately following the construction of the and, in the early twentieth century, there was railway, which provided a firm boundary to the further expansion west around Twmpath Road. east. By 1881, Upper Bridge Street (originally Housing schemes from the mid-twentieth century Pound Lane), Park Terrace and Albion Road were introduced designed layouts, contrasting with the developed, as was the upper end of Nicholas more informal patterns of historical settlement in Street. Twenty years later Nicholas Street had the area.

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Right: A symmetrical composition on Upper Park Terrace (Crown Copyright: RCAHMW).

Far right: Unusual classical detailing (Crown Copyright: RCAHMW).

Right and far right: Modern finishes mar the quality of these nineteenth- century terraced houses, which were originally rendered, but they still retain some good original detail (Crown Copyright: RCAHMW).

Right: A surviving The Character of Building example of scribed render (Crown Copyright: RCAHMW). Very little of the early settlement of this area has survived its comprehensive suburban development from the late nineteenth century onwards, but there is an important early survival at Twmpath Farm, and a handful of small vernacular buildings on Tranch High Street. Nineteenth-century residential development includes some mid-century housing with its own distinctive character. Before about 1880, render was commonly used as the finish on stone buildings and, on Upper Park Terrace, Upper Bridge Street and the top end of Nicholas Street, some houses retain their original scribed render. Several of the developments here are distinguished by the use of overtly classical detail, with pedimented doorcases. Later development is the more typical Pontypool terrace, with exposed rubble and brick dressings.

Park Terrace stands out not only for the quality of detail and composition at Upper Park Terrace, but also for the larger houses at Lower Park Terrace with their bay windows and gables. The much later development on Twmpath Road takes up a key theme of housing in Pontypool — its pairs and terraces are carefully composed as designed groups. The area as a whole represents an interesting mix of different types of house.

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High-quality housing on Park Terrace (Crown Copyright: RCAHMW).

Distinctive pairs on Twmpath Road (Crown Copyright: RCAHMW).

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Above: Wainfelin from across the valley (Crown 9. Wainfelin Copyright: RCAHMW).

Right: An early survival Historical Background at Wainfelin (Crown Copyright: RCAHMW). In the early nineteenth century, the area to the south-west of the town was largely agricultural, with a pattern of small fields and scattered dwellings. The main route north from Pontypool once came this way. It is now Wainfelin Road and, at its junction with Merchants Hill, there is at least one building which predates the development The Character of Building of this area in the late nineteenth century. Penywain Road may have developed from The limited period of development has lent a earlier farm tracks or paths, but the Trevethin strong coherence to this area, but there is Tithe Map does not show it as a through-route. considerable variation of character within it. The area retained this open character until the The cluster of buildings close to St Alban’s end of the nineteenth century when, piecemeal at Church on Wainfelin Road represent some first, the fields began to be built over and linear of the earliest buildings here (they are shown development took place along the through-road. on the map of 1836 and are probably early The process of development left many pockets nineteenth century in origin), whilst at the of land untouched, however, and it was only the northern end of the street is another survival, public-housing programme after the Second probably even earlier. Along Wainfelin Road the World War that initiated development on a housing is a mix of large semi-detached villas, scale larger than that of single fields. Even now, characterized by bold massing and big gables, and some of the old fields remain. intermediate-sized houses with two-storey bay

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windows and gabled fronts. All have has its own style. Flamboyant use of decorative characteristically long gardens and good boundary brick, with subtle distinctions such as whether detail. The streets behind this main axis were or not there are bay windows, lend a strong developed with smaller terraced housing, mostly sense of colour and rhythm to the streetscape. of similar plan, but with variety in detail. Each Good surviving boundary wall detail contributes street (and sometimes each block of housing) to the strong character of this area.

Left: Stone and brick in both simple and elaborate combinations (Crown Copyright: RCAHMW).

Far left: Ornate use of brickwork links these terraced houses (Crown Copyright: RCAHMW).

Left: Larger terraced houses, with gables, full-height bay windows, and long gardens (Crown Copyright: RCAHMW).

Left: Substantial houses with lively façades (Crown Copyright: RCAHMW).

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Statement of Significance

Pontypool has a distinguished history and can shared characteristics arising from common claim to be the first truly industrial town in Wales. models of building and materials, and a distinctive Within the limits of the modern settlement area style. Architectural detail is used here to mark out major technological developments in the iron many types and grades of house, and its survival industry took place, and these have also given the lends real distinction to the town, displaying a rich town a place in the history books. Like other social history even from the relatively recent past. successful industrial towns, however, development pressures brought a relentless cycle of change Pontypool Park is another remarkable assertion and there is now little in the standing fabric of the of history — as the site of some of its earliest town to suggest its early origins and growth. industry and the home of its dominant Direct evidence of its industrial base is now landowning dynasty, it is an area absolutely central elusive. The cycle of change has also ensured that to the fortunes of the town. Though not quite many of the historic transport networks that immune to the processes of change that have served the town and its hinterland have been done so much to model the town, the park has overlooked, lost, or replaced by modern roads. resisted many of them and survives not only as an The river too, which was integral to industrial important legacy of the past, but as a valuable foil development, has been neglected. Nevertheless, to the dense development patterns which one legacy of past industrial prosperity is an characterize the town itself. architecturally sophisticated town centre. An impressive series of civic and commercial The whole settlement of Pontypool shares an buildings crowded into a topographically important industrial history. Extraction and constrained site have produced a townscape of production generated a mesh of connections considerable quality. between disparate areas, and together supported a town with a clearly defined centre and a In common with other industrial towns, the coherent series of satellite settlements. Some of character of modern Pontypool was defined in a the broken threads that bound the settlement relatively short time in the late nineteenth together could be repaired but, at the same time, century by the development of extensive the separate physical character of its component residential suburbs. The topography and transport parts is a distinctive feature of the town, which routes served to divide these areas, each of which should be reinforced. has a strong individual identity, notwithstanding

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Selected Sources

Cartographic Sources Published Sources

Ordnance Survey, 6” to one mile, R. R. Angerstein, R. R. Angerstein’s Illustrated Travel Monmouthshire, First Edition (1886). Diary, 1753–1755 (London, 2001). Monmouthshire XXIII NW, XXIII NE, XVIII SW, XVIII SE. C. Barber, Eastern Valley; The Story of Torfaen (Llanfoist, 1999). Ordnance Survey, 25” to one mile, Monmouthshire, First Edition (1880–1882). D. S. M. Barrie, A Regional History of the Railways of Great Britain: , Vol 12 (Newton Ordnance Survey, 25” to one mile, Abbot, 1980). Monmouthshire, Second Edition (1901). Emmanuel and Thomas Bowen, ‘Monmouthshire Plan of a canal from Newport to Pontnewynydd Divided into Hundreds’, from D. P. M. Michael, with a branch to Crumlin Bridge, T. Dadford, The Mapping of Monmouthshire (Bristol and 1792 (Pontypool Museum). Abergavenny, 1985).

Plan of a canal from the town of Brecknock Joseph Bradney, A History of Monmouthshire, Vol. 1, to join the Monmouthshire Canal near Part 2b, The Hundred of Abergavenny (part 2) the town of Pontypool, T. Dadford, 1793 (London, 1992). (Pontypool Museum). Arthur Clark, The Story of Pontypool Plan of Pontypool in 1836 (Pontypool Museum). (Pontypool, 1958).

Plan of the Town Forge and Appendages, William Coxe, An Historical Tour in Monmouthshire Pontypool, 1834 (Gwent Record Office). (London, 1801).

Pontypool Park Estate maps Arthur Crane, Bernard Derrick and Edward (Pontypool Museum). Donovan, Pontypool’s Heritage in Pictures and Post Cards (Newport, 1989). Tithe Map, Parish of Llanfihangel Pontymoel, 1839 (The National Library of Wales). John Davies, A History of Wales (London, 1994).

Tithe Map, Parish of Panteg, 1839 D. D. & J. M. Gladwin, The Canals of the Welsh (The National Library of Wales). Valleys and their Tramroads (Headington, 1991).

Tithe Map, Parish of Trefethin, 1841–44 Madeleine Gray and Prys Morgan, eds, The Gwent (The National Library of Wales). County History, Vol. 3, The Making of Monmouthshire, 1536–1780 (Cardiff, 2009). Wentsland Estate maps (Pontypool Museum). Charles Hadfield, The Canals of South Wales and the Border (Newton Abbot, 1967).

L. Ince, South Wales Iron Industry 1750–1885 (Birmingham, 1993).

61 PONTYPOOL: UNDERSTANDING URBAN CHARACTER

R. H. Johns, Johns Directory of Pontypool and Eastern Valleys (R. H. Johns, 1906).

W. G. Lloyd, Pontypool: The Heart of the Valley (, 2009).

John Newman, The Buildings of Wales: Monmouthshire (London, 2000).

Reginald Nichols, Pontypool and Usk Japan Ware (Pontypool, 1981).

J. Pigot, National Commercial Directory (London, 1830).

Philip Riden, A Gazetteer of Charcoal-Fired Blast Furnaces in Great Britain in Use since 1660 (Cardiff, 1993).

H. R. Schubert, History of the British Iron and Steel Industry (London, 1957).

Isaac Slater, Slater’s Royal National and Commercial Directory and Topography of the Counties of Gloucestershire and Monmouthshire, and North and South Wales (Manchester, 1858).

Torfaen Museum Trust,The Story of Pontypool and Usk Japanware (Pontypool, 2009).

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Endnotes

1. William Coxe, An Historical Tour in 15. Emmanuel and Thomas Bowen, Monmouthshire (London, 1801). ‘Monmouthshire Divided into Hundreds’, from D. P. M. Michael, The Mapping of 2. J. Pigot, National Commercial Directory Monmouthshire (Bristol and Abergavenny, (London, 1830). 1985), pp. 49, 81.

3. Madeleine Gray and Prys Morgan, eds, The 16. R. R. Angerstein, R. R. Angerstein’s Illustrated Gwent County History, Vol. 3, The Making of Travel Diary, 1753–1755 (London, 2001). Monmouthshire, 1536–1780 (Cardiff, 2009). 17. William Coxe, An Historical Tour in 4. Plan of the Town Forge and Appendages, Monmouthshire (London, 1801). Pontypool, 1834, Gwent Record Office. 18. Plan of Pontypool in 1836, 5. Reginald Nichols, Pontypool and Usk Japan Pontypool Museum. Ware (Pontypool, 1981). 19. Estate Papers, Torfaen Museum. 6. Madeleine Gray and Prys Morgan, eds, The Gwent County History, Vol. 3, The Making of 20. Plan of the Town Forge and Appendages, Monmouthshire, 1536–1780 (Cardiff, 2009). Pontypool, 1834, Gwent Record Office.

7. Reginald Nichols, Pontypool and Usk Japan 21. C. Barber, Eastern Valley; The Story of Torfaen Ware (Pontypool, 1981). (Llanfoist, 1999).

8. Torfaen Museum Trust,The Story of Pontypool 22. Reginald Nichols, Pontypool and Usk Japan and Usk Japanware (Pontypool, 2009). Ware (Pontypool, 1981).

9. John Davies, A History of Wales 23. Torfaen Museum Trust, The Story of Pontypool (London, 1994). and Usk Japanware (Pontypool, 2009), from Thomas Martyn, A Tour of South Wales, 1801 10. Reginald Nichols, Pontypool and Usk Japan (available at: www. gtj.org.uk/en/small/ Ware (Pontypool, 1981). item/gtj27000).

11. Isaac Slater, Slater’s Royal National and 24. William Coxe, An Historical Tour in Commercial Directory and Topography of the Monmouthshire (London, 1801). Counties of Gloucestershire and Monmouthshire, and North and South Wales 25. R. H. Johns, Johns Directory of Pontypool and (Manchester, 1858). Eastern Valleys (R. H. Johns, 1906).

12. J. Pigot, National Commercial Directory 26. A Collection of Welsh Tours; or, A Display (London, 1830). of the Beauties of Wales 1797; quoted in W. G. Lloyd, Pontypool: The Heart of the 13. W. G. Lloyd, Pontypool: The Heart of the Valley Valley (Cwmbran, 2009). (Cwmbran, 2009). 27. Arthur Crane, Bernard Derrick and Edward 14. Dr Richard Pococke, quoted in Torfaen Donovan, Pontypool’s Heritage in Pictures and Museum Trust, The Story of Pontypool and Usk Post Cards (Newport, 1989). Japanware (Pontypool, 2009).

63 PONTYPOOL: UNDERSTANDING URBAN CHARACTER

28. Joseph Bradney, A History of Monmouthshire, Vol. 1, Part 2b, The Hundred of Abergavenny (part 2), (London, 1992).

29. William Coxe, An Historical Tour in Monmouthshire (London, 1801).

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1. The Extent of Urban Development by 1844 (Tithe Map data on First Edition Ordnance Survey map base)

© Crown copyright and Landmark Information Group. All rights reserved. Glamorgan-Gwent Archaeological Trust Ltd. On behalf of the Welsh Government 2012.

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2. The Extent of Urban Development by 1882 (on First Edition Ordnance Survey map base)

© Crown copyright and Landmark Information Group. All rights reserved. Glamorgan-Gwent Archaeological Trust Ltd. On behalf of the Welsh Government 2012.

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3. Detail of Urban Development in Central Pontypool, Sow Hill and Trosnant by 1882 (on First Edition Ordnance Survey map base)

© Crown copyright and Landmark Information Group. All rights reserved. Glamorgan-Gwent Archaeological Trust Ltd. On behalf of the Welsh Government 2012.

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4. The Extent of Urban Development by 1901 (on Second Edition Ordnance Survey map base)

© Crown copyright and Landmark Information Group. All rights reserved. Glamorgan-Gwent Archaeological Trust Ltd. On behalf of the Welsh Government 2012.

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5. Detail of Urban Development in Central Pontypool, Sow Hill and Trosnant by 1901 (on Second Edition Ordnance Survey map base)

© Crown copyright and Landmark Information Group. All rights reserved. Glamorgan-Gwent Archaeological Trust Ltd. On behalf of the Welsh Government 2012.

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6. All Character Areas

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7. All Character Areas with Listed Buildings, Registered Park, and Conservation Area

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8. Town Centre

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9. Hanbury Road

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10. Trosnant

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11. Pontypool Park

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12. Pontymoile

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13. Osborne Road

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14. Penygarn and East of the River

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15. Sow Hill

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16. Wainfelin

80 Cadw is the Welsh Government’s historic environment service, working for an accessible and well-protected historic environment for Wales.

Cadw Welsh Government Plas Carew Unit 5/7 Cefn Coed Parc Nantgarw Cardiff CF15 7QQ